Undocumented woman with brain tumor seized by federal agents at Texas hospital, family fears she will die

Her New York relatives are terrified Sara Beltran Hernandez will die from a brain tumor after federal immigration agents snatched her from a Texas hospital bed Wednesday night.

As her family worried Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the 26-year-old undocumented mother of two was stable and voluntarily discharged by her doctor to The Prairieland Detention Center pending a Monday appointment with a specialist.

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Beltran Hernandez reportedly fled a domestic abuser in El Salvador before she was picked up trying to enter the U.S. near Hidalgo, Tex., in November 2015.

A family member of Sara Beltran Hernandez say she's "very weak and can barely walk." (Melissa Zuniga)

An immigration judge ordered her deportation last month.

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Beltran Hernandez's Queens-based relatives have been working feverishly on a petition for her asylum. Her sister rushed to Texas and was allowed an 80-minute visit with her late Thursday, family spokeswoman Melissa Zuniga told the Daily News.

"Sara is worse than we thought," Zuniga, a paralegal who accompanied the sister to the Texas detention facility, said. "Death may be imminent."

She said Beltran Hernandez is "very weak" and can barely walk.

"I feel dizzy, with pain. Heavy eyes. Nausea. If I walk fast, I feel dizzy. Noise really bothers me. I have not eaten since yesterday . . . because I have no appetite. Sometimes, I forget things. The tongue is not always responsive," Beltran Hernandez told an attorney who visited her at the detention center Thursday, according to The Associated Press.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents look into the window of an apartment while executing search warrants. (Mark Boster/LA Times via Getty Images)

She said a doctor told her she was suffering from a brain tumor.

"We are in unchartered territory. We need very special help. We need compassion, but I'm not seeing any. I'm very nervous," Zuniga said.

She said the woman's legal team filed a successful motion to release her medical records, but other than that the family has no control over her care.

"It's not looking promising," Zuniga said.

Sara Beltran Hernandez reportedly fled a domestic abuser in El Salvador before she was picked up trying to enter the U.S. in November. (Melissa Zuniga)

"This appears at this stage to be a dangerous and inhumane overreach by ICE. It's this type of haphazard, callous enforcement that undermines American values and any common sense of decency," Rosemary Boeglin, a spokeswoman for Mayor de Blasio, said Thursday.

Boeglin said the mayor's office had reached out to the woman's law firm to offer support.

A number of recent ICE cases have drawn national attention — and ire — in light of the Trump administration's pledge to crack down on illegal immigration. Human rights groups charge that deportation orders have been more aggressively pursued since Trump became President.

Beltran Hernandez was voluntarily discharged by her doctor to The Prairieland Detention Center (pictured) pending a Monday appointment with a specialist. (Louis DeLuca/AP)

They disputed the family's claim that she was restrained at her hands and feet when she was removed from the hospital and said she received phone calls from both her family and her attorney of record while at the hospital.

A number of ICE cases have drawn national attention — and ire — in light of the Trump administration's pledge to crack down on illegal immigration. (John Moore/Getty Images)

A local Texas lawyer who says he was contacted by Beltran Hernandez's camp to check on her late Wednesday said he was threatened with arrest when he tried to visit her around 9 p.m. Wednesday.

"I consider this a direct threat to democracy," lawyer Chris Hamilton told The News. "The basic constitutional rights of access to counsel and due process are what prevent people from being disappeared."

Zuniga said Beltran Hernandez's family members are running a race against the clock.

"We just want her out of there," Zuniga said. "I fear we may be too late."